Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ten years later

We know now, as a lot of us suspected then, that it was predicated on lies, misinformation, and goading by a president and supposed allies who knew full well that there were no WMD’s in Iraq. It was all payback and playtime for the neocons who couldn’t bear the fact that even though Saddam Hussein had nothing whatsoever to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks, he was still in power: the one dictator in the world out of so many that we couldn’t leave in place.

So for that we have destroyed countless lives, changed the world’s balance of power, enabled more terrorists, and put our nation on a permanent path of fear, loathing, and exploitation. And what have we gained? Nothing.

No war has ever brought true peace. It only leads to a change in the pieces on the chessboard, which leads to the next war, and the next, and the next after that. The only way to stop the cycle is to never start it in the first place.